brush

a device having bristles, hairs, or wires fastened into a hard back, with or without a handle attached: brushes are used for cleaning, polishing, painting, smoothing the hair, etc.

a device of wires attached in a fanlike spread to a handle, used as on drums or cymbals for a swishing or muted effect

the act of brushing

a light, grazing stroke: a brush of the hand

brushwork

a bushy tail, esp. that of a fox

Slang brushoff

Elec.

a piece, plate, rod, or bundle of carbon, copper, etc. used as a conductor between an external circuit and a revolving part, as in a motor

brush discharge

Origin of brush

Middle English brushe from Old French broce, brosse, bush, brushwood from Vulgar Latin an unverified form bruscia from Germanic an unverified form bruskaz, underbrush: for Indo-European base see breast

to use a brush on; clean, polish, paint, smooth, etc. with a brush

to apply, spread, remove, etc. with a stroke or strokes as of a brush

to go over lightly, as with a brush

to touch or graze in passing

to move so as to push lightly aside, skim, or graze past something

brush Idioms

brush aside

to sweep out of the way

to dismiss from consideration

brush off

Slang

to dismiss or get rid of abruptly or rudely

brush up

to make neat or presentable

to refresh one's memory or skill: often with on: to brush up on one's French

to hurry

Origin of brush

Middle English bruschen, rush from uncertain or unknown; perhaps Old French brosser, to travel (? through woods), beat underbrush for game: see brush

brush

These verbs mean to make light contact with something in passing: Her arm brushed mine. I flicked the paper with my finger. The arrow glanced off the tree. The knife blade grazed the countertop. A taxi shaved the curb. The oar skims the pond's surface.

Middle English brusshe, from Old French broisse (compare Modern French brosse) from Vulgar Latin *bruscia from Proto-Germanic*bruskaz (“underbrush”), from Proto-Indo-European*bhreus- (“to swell, sprout”). Akin to Middle High German bürste (“brush”), Old English byrst (“bristle”), Middle High German broz (“a bud, shoot”), Old English brēost (“breast”), Proto-Slavic *bъrščь (“hogweed”).